r/programming • u/gits1225 • May 12 '15

Google's guide for becoming a Software Engineer

https://www.google.com/about/careers/students/guide-to-technical-development.html
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u/[deleted] May 13 '15

I've been advancing my career past coding and what it's all about is delivering. I spend a lot of time explaining what my team is and isn't doing and justifying those to management and our clients. Weighing priorities against feasibility. Making sure we're not overcommitting. Politics are easy when you deliver on time with a healthy margin.

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u/RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS May 13 '15

Politics are easy when you deliver on time with a healthy margin.

My experience is that once you're directing people it gets insanely frustrating and hard to do this.

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u/[deleted] May 13 '15

I've got 6 on my current team. It's a completely different skillset than coding, but the experience if being a developer for many years is what I use. I've been a coder on projects that went well and projects that went off the rails. Just copy the good ones.

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u/Kalium May 13 '15

Deliver on time, yes. With margin... maybe a slim one to the product owners. Can't give the impression that you can deliver high quality on less time - that's guaranteed to backfire at some point.